Watch for the Latest Issue of the Central Headlight

It was mailed today(Feb 6, 2015).

If you haven’t renewed for 2015, you won’t be receiving this issue.

The First Quarter 2015 issue of Central Headlight will be mailed to all members in good standing on February 5. Please note that if you did not renew your membership for 2015 in time, you are not on the mailing list. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

If you like freight trains, you will enjoy the lead article of this issue. NYCS veteran Carl Liba describes in detail the operation of sixteen of NYC’s hottest freights in 1960, including schedules, terminals, intermediate stops, blockings, setouts and pick-ups, and timings for each. Fourteen photos illustrate the piece.

April 15 will mark the 150th anniversary of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and we thought it appropriate to tell the story of the operation of the fallen president’s funeral train in New York State, from New York City to Buffalo, over the then not-yet-consolidated Hudson River and New York Central railroads on April 25, 26, and 27. Railroad historian and NYCSHS member Richard Palmer spent over two years researching the topic and digging up illustrations, and the article provides a wonderful glimpse into how parts of our favorite railroad were operated a century and a half ago.

In a spell-binding narrative, former NYCSHS director Richard Borsos tells us how his railroader’s instinct led him to avert a rear-end disaster on Michigan Central’s Joliet Branch on a densely foggy night, and he illustrates the event with three photos taken the following morning of the tricky rerailing of wayward H-10b 2337. Richard was fireman on the big 2-8-2.

A diesel photo essay by member Chuck Bohi, a fiery reminiscence by the late Jim Stuart, a look at an N-Trak NYC-themed layout in Arizona, and the usual columns round out this big, 48-page issue. Enjoy!